I'm on fire today

I don’t write much for this blog lately.  I have lots to say, but either haven’t got the time or don’t care to take the time to sit down and pound out a few thoughts.

However, as the tag line of this blog is “Dispensing commentary, dry opinions and rancid witticisms“, I decided to share a couple of my responses to posted links on facebook from today.  And this in spite of the fact that the link poster in question is none other than my lovely wife, who is kind enough to not get too upset by my acerbic commentary.

First up, my take on a piece in Slate about atheist marriages.  The summary states:

Now here’s an absurd hypothetical: If I were a single, straight, atheistic male (in reality I’m neither single nor straight), would I be inclined to look for a similarly godless woman with whom to settle down and rear a batch of little baby Berings? I’m torn. Sure, I’d probably be “happier” with a fellow atheist. But there’s also something to be said for marrying a zealot.

I admit, I didn’t read any further than the above.  Still, that was enough for me to respond:

The key phrase here is “Now here’s an absurd hypothetical”. Really, who spends time thinking about this kind of stuff?

The next one was an excerpt about the baby mummy Rosalia Lombardo blogged on The Dish.  If you don’t know about this story, a guy named Alfredo Salafia, a taxidermist, embalmed this little two year girl and, by all accounts, she still looks like she’s sleeping and could wake up at any moment.  Creepiness factor aside, my reaction has more to do with the circle of life thing:

Embalming perfected. But to what end? The natural cycle is for dead things to decompose and supply nutrients to new – living – growth.

The last one I’ll share today was an attempt at humour in reply to a piece about Neanderthals and Denisovans and the ongoing genetic research into sorting out humanity’s origins:

What would be really neat is if scientists could identify – and neutralize – the genes that make people behave like assholes.

I wrote this while thinking about some near flat-out flame wars on facebook pages, most of which are focused on many of the more divisive issues in the US and, to a lesser extent, in Canada.  However, that last remark earned me a light verbal reprimand:

You know, leaving comments like that on my own facebook page is kind of asshole-ish behaviour.

All I could do was smile.